Paper Piecing

Foundation pieced quilts, sometimes called paper pieced quilts, are made by sewing pieces of fabric onto a temporary or permanent foundation.
— quilting.about.com

Paper Piecing. It’s what I do. I play at crafts and I crochet to relax, but paper piecing is what motivates me, inspires me, and makes me want to keep creating. It’s addicting, frustrating, and incredibly rewarding. I love to design, to piece, and, when I get the opportunity, help others learn, too. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

How To Paper Piece

• Complete How To Paper Piece Tutorial on Sewhooked
• My videos about Paper Piecing
• Practice Paper Piecing from Quilter’s Cache
• Paper Piecing Tutorial from Such A Sew & Sew
• Christine Thresh’s Paper Piecing Primer
• Paper Panache How To Paper Piece
• Basics on About.com
• Learning to Paper Piece on Artisania
• Sewing More Complex Paper Pieced Patterns on Artisania
• How to Paper Piece video in Italian by Gaya

Designing Your Own Patterns

• Thoughts and suggestions on designing without quilting software with Drawing A Patchy Heart from Sewhooked.
• Quilt Assistant - Free Quilt Design Software, great for designing paper pieced patterns
• Electric Quilt 7 - for purchase quilt design software

My Original Paper Pieced Patterns

You are welcome to use any pattern or project for personal or charitable use or add links on your own website. If you have any questions, please contact me. ~Jennifer

• The Sewhooked Shop
• Free Quilt Patterns on Sewhooked, includes patterns designed by myself and Guest Designers
• The Project of Doom - A Block of the Week Harry Potter Mystery Quilt (also archived here on Sewhooked and here on Fandom In Stitches.
• Fandom In Stitches - a collection of Fandom patterns designed by myself and the FiS Designers

Free Patterns and Resources From Other Sites

• Free Patterns Around The Web, a compiled list on Sewhooked

Paper Piecing Hints

• Always use 100% cotton, good quality quilting fabric.
• Use lightweight paper when printing, as it tears off easier. I like recycled printer paper. You can also try products like Carol Doak’s Foundation Paper
• Almost all Sewhooked patterns have a 1/4″ seam allowance and will finish 5″ (5 1/2″ unfinished).
• For best printing, set PDF printing to “no scaling”
• A Note to International Visitors – The patterns on Sewhooked are formatted for the standard paper size in the United States. U.S. A4, is 8.5″ x 11″ while the ISO A4 is 210 × 297mm or 8.3″ × 11.7″. You might occasionally find that a pattern designed by a U.S. designer such as myself won’t quite fit on a sheet of paper. There are a couple of options to get around this problem. If your printer format allows it, you may also wish to print the pattern over multiple pages. You can use larger paper, ISO A3, for example. If neither of these is an option for you, use “scale to fit” in your PDF options. Please note that if the pattern size is reduced, you will need to add a small border to the block for it to be the proper finished size.
• To enlarge the patterns, I recommend printing, cutting apart the pattern pieces and enlarging them individually,for a 5″ pattern, 200% is 10″, etc.
• All Sewhooked patterns are mirror images. The image will be correct AFTER you piece it.
• Blue lines on older patterns indicate inside seams.
• To make sure your blocks align perfectly, find adjacent corners of two pattern pieces, push a pin through the exact corners of each to match the two. Pin or hold the pieces in place for sewing.
• Colors used on patterns are just a guide for fabric placement, the selection is up to you. You can always print in gray scale.
• Leave the paper attached to the block until you sew it in it’s final place, whether it be a quilt, purse, etc. That will keep the bias edges from stretching.
• These are multi-part patterns. Accuracy is very important. If you’re new to paper piecing, just take your time and practice, practice, practice!
• Suggested uses… quilts (of course!), handbags, banners, pillows, totes… use your imagination!